Flyers Notes: Flyers debating need for trade

TAMPA, Fla. - The Flyers have interest in a handful of forwards - including Carolina's Erik Cole - but there is debate in the organization about whether to add a player before the Feb. 28 trade deadline.

"We don't know if we want to disrupt the chemistry," said a club source. "That's the question."

The Flyers entered Tuesday atop the 30-team NHL with 71 points, equaling the second-highest point total after 50 games in the franchise's history. Only the 1979-80 team, which lost to the New York Islanders in the Stanley Cup Finals, had more points (82) after 50 games.

Cole, 32, played for coach Peter Laviolette when Carolina won the Stanley Cup in 2006. He figures to be available only if the Hurricanes fall out of the playoff hunt.

Tampa Bay winger Simon Gagne, one of the most popular players to wear a Flyers uniform, has recovered from an early-season neck injury and has started to resemble his old, fast self.

Gagne, 30, acquired last summer for Matt Walker and a fourth-round pick in the 2011 draft, missed 18 games from Oct. 21 to Nov. 30, and it took him a while to get back to form.

Within the first two minutes of Tuesday's game, Gagne registered two assists. For the season, he has nine goals in 33 games. Entering the night, he had six goals in his last eight games.

"The last month has been pretty good," said Gagne, sporting a new, short haircut. "Goals are starting to go in. Even before then, I started to get a lot of chances and could see my game was coming."

Facing the Flyers Tuesday was "better timing" than when they met earlier in the season, Gagne said. "It was hard on me. All the changes, going back to Philly and you'd rather be facing them when you're in better shape and in game [shape] a little more."

Gagne and his wife have settled in the Tampa area. They are living on the bay and are expecting their second child in a few weeks.

Heading into Tuesday, the Flyers and Lightning were Nos. 1-2 in the East, and so, yes, Gagne has thought about possibly facing his former teammates in the playoffs.

"That," said Gagne, who is renting his Voorhees house to Laviolette, "would be something special."

Winger James van Riemsdyk, who missed the previous two games with a groin injury, was back in the lineup against Tampa Bay.

Jody Shelley and Oskars Bartulis were ill and unavailable.

At the all-star break, Andrej Meszaros led the NHL with a plus-28 rating. He was minus-14 for Tampa Bay last year. Matt Carle was tied for fourth in the league with a plus-22 rating. . . . The Flyers have dominated despite less-than-stellar special-teams play. Their power play (17.7 percent success rate) was 15th in the NHL entering Tuesday, and their penalty kill (83.2 percent) was 11th. . . . The Flyers were next to last in the league with 224 minor penalties in the first 50 games. Only the Penguins had committed more minor infractions (249). All told, the Flyers were 26th in the league, averaging 14.9 penalty minutes per game. . . . Heading into Tuesday, the Flyers' plus-44 goal differential - 174 goals scored, 130 goals against - was tied with Vancouver for best in the league. . . . Kimmo Timonen needs one goal to reach 100 in his career.

- Sam Carchidi